More Urbem Quotes

 Aware that the city was architecturally unworthy of her position as capital of the Roman Empire, besides being vulnerable to fire and river floods, Augustus so improved her appearance that he could justifiably boast: "I found Rome built of bricks; I leave her clothed in marble."Ch. 28

 Had my lineage and rank been accompanied by only moderate success, I should have come to this city as friend rather than prisoner, and you would not have disdained to ally yourself peacefully with one so nobly born, the ruler of so many nations.TacitusAnnales, Bk. XII, ch. 37; translation from The Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Michael Grant, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1956] 1971) p. 267.

 Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,Expell'd and exil'd, left the Trojan shore.Long labours both by sea and land he bore,And in the doubtful war, before he wonThe Latian realm, and built the destin'd town;His banish'd gods restor'd to rites divine,And settled sure succession in his line,From whence the race of Alban fathers come,And the long glories of majestic Rome.Lines 1–7, translated by John Dryden (1697).Cf. the opening lines of Homer's Odyssey (as translated by Alexander Pope): The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd, / Long exercis'd in woes, oh Muse! resound. / . . . / On stormy seas unnumber'd toils he bore.Cf. also the opening lines of Camões' The Lusiads (as translated by William Julius Mickle): Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon's shore, / Thro' Seas where sail was never spread before / . . . / With prowess more than human forc'd their way / To the fair kingdoms of the rising day: / What wars they wag'd, what seas, what dangers past, / What glorious empire crown'd their toils at last.

 Had my lineage and rank been accompanied by only moderate success, I should have come to this city as friend rather than prisoner, and you would not have disdained to ally yourself peacefully with one so nobly born, the ruler of so many nations. TacitusAnnales, Bk. XII, ch. 37; translation from The Annals of Imperial Rome, trans. Michael Grant, (Harmondsworth: Penguin, [1956] 1971) p. 267.

 Cf. the opening lines of Homer's Odyssey (as translated by Alexander Pope): The man for wisdom's various arts renown'd, / Long exercis'd in woes, oh Muse! resound. / . . . / On stormy seas unnumber'd toils he bore. Cf. also the opening lines of Camões' The Lusiads (as translated by William Julius Mickle): Arms and the Heroes, who from Lisbon's shore, / Thro' Seas where sail was never spread before / . . . / With prowess more than human forc'd their way / To the fair kingdoms of the rising day: / What wars they wag'd, what seas, what dangers past, / What glorious empire crown'd their toils at last.

 One stroke of sword and all the world is yours.Make plain to all men that the crowds who deckedPompeius' hundred pageants scarce were fitFor one poor triumph. Book VII, line 278 (translated by Sir Edward Ridley).